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George H.W. Bush, RIP
President George H.W. Bush passed away Friday evening at 10:10 pm CT at the age of 94. Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath posted the following statement to Twitter:
George Herbert Walker Bush, World War II naval aviator, Texas oil pioneer, and 41st President of the United States of America, died on November 30, 2018. He was 94 and is survived by his five children and their spouses, 17 grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, and two siblings. He was preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Barbara; his second child Pauline Robinson “Robin” Bush; and his brothers Prescott and William or “Bucky” Bush.
Rest in peace, sir.
Update: His son, President George W. Bush, has released a statement from his siblings and himself:
Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.
A video retrospective from the New York Times:
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Published in Politics
What a great tribute from the U.K.
We play the hand we are dealt. No point crying over spilled milk.
What a lovely tribute. I have tears running down my cheeks.
One million likes for this.
I’m rubber, you’re glue . . .
Grow up.
Dana Carvey does GHWB. Stay for Bush’s comments at the end. Good man.
So sweet. GHWB was such a gracious and lovely class act. We are so blessed by his lifetime of service.
I disagree with much of this…..
From what I can tell, Reagan and Bush were surrounded buy a bunch of bad people towards the end of Reagan’s term, and their hands were tied until the Soviet Union actually fell. This is how Paul Volker got fired. Those guys couldn’t know all of this stuff. Then there was Ross Perot and Kuwait. Bush was in a bad spot.
Oh, the irony.
You may not be aware, but it seems to me you do a lot of scolding and writing people off if they disagree with you, George. In fact, my first encounter with you on R> was memorable because you said you wouldn’t engage with me again. Ahem.
I neither respect nor disrespect either of these men for becoming president. My evaluation of them is based on their accomplishments in the role and their behavior in spite of it. Which is why, I suspect, we disagree so strenuously about President Trump. I think your deference for the office is why you’re so unhappy about him. I’m just not that invested.
We just lost my 89-year-old, Korean/Vietnam war vet hero, member of the first class of Airborne Rangers, life-saving-medic father-in-law this spring. Yes, we miss him, but what a great life he led, and he had as good a death as anyone can hope for. Got into bed on a Saturday and was gone by Sunday afternoon. Happy memories for us and no more suffering for him. I suspect the Bush family feels much the same.
4. You’re welcome?
Here is an essay that says exactly the sentiments I was trying to convey: https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/01/george-h-w-bush-the-last-wasp-president/
This is an interesting piece. I do not deny it. But, as usual with articles on this site, I take issue with parts of it. Some vehemently.
I still maintain, however, that now is not the time to discuss these things. There will be plenty of time to debate the wisdom of WASP values, as interpreted – or possibly misinterpreted – in the piece. George H.W. Bush is going to lie in State in the Capitol, starting tomorrow through Wednesday. Why can’t we take time to celebrate his life and his decency, instead of slamming the supposed things he believed?
Because a man should be remembered as he is, not as a myth. If you are remembered incorrectly then are you really remembered at all?
You are right that we should not focus on the time he was mean to some girl in high school or the time he picked his nose inappropriately, but remembering the important accomplishments and policies of his life are exactly what we should look back on.
Please post after his funeral.
To his great credit, President Trump declared a national federal holiday as a day of remberance this week. Good job President Trump.
Enough of this. You will never understand my point nor speak to it. The second paragraph above is totally unnecessary. I want to debate Bush’s legacy. But it can wait. What’s the rush? It is a matter of respect. I am sorry you refuse to see that.
James Bradley’s Flyboys has been mentioned. The Navy lost a number of airplanes trying to take out a big radar and communications installation on Chichi Jima as part of the preparation for the invasion of Iwo Jima. This effort was abandoned after Lt. Bush’s unsuccessful attempt.
Gen. Yoshio Tachibana, who commanded the Japanese forces on the island, was one of the more extreme examples of the politicized Bushido that drove Japan’s war party. He participated in Japan’s invasion and occupation of China, where he was initiated into the consumption of the livers and other body parts of defeated enemies. He and a small circle of his officers continued this on Chichi Jima, where they murdered and cannibalized several American pilots. Had the Japanese attempts to pick Bush up succeeded – instead of having been deterred by American air cover for long enough to give the submarine a chance to rescue him – and had he been unable to carry out his resolution to suicide, the man who became CIA director and then President would probably have been on the menu. This is so bizarre that it would be unbelievable in fiction, but it is true.
A sobering thought: George H.W. Bush was at one point the youngest fighter pilot in the Navy. His family probably used its connections to make that happen.
Yes, and how many other potential presidents were lost in the efforts to stop German and Japanese oppression?
Well, now. What a horrible sentiment for a forum intended to allow people to speak openly and civilly about important issues.
This is precisely the time to remember him as accurately as possible. If you want to only read nice rainbow platitudes, then perhaps you should confine your internet reading to the Bush Family Website. If you don’t like that I put his life into context to see its entire impact on the world stage and more importantly us, then you could just remain tacit and that would be that. But if you want to keep bossing me around, then I’m not going to stop telling you no.
Not to be argumentative, but perhaps he was simply extremely talented. He was so young that learning would have come quickly to him. I’m sure there was new technology in the planes that a young person would have picked up very quickly. Given how desperate the Navy and Air Force were for trained pilots, that’s a distinct possibility.
Bush may have understood how to fly almost intuitively. And he must have had extraordinary reflexes. Not too many people are built to fly–or play the violin or perform brain surgery. Furthermore, scientists have always been fascinated with the genetic transmission of music ability and athletic prowess within families. It’s possible, given his son’s flying ability, that 41 was made that way–to fly. A friend of my mother’s was an Air Force pilot. He told us once (not in a conversation about 41) that landing a plane on an aircraft carrier is the most difficult flying a pilot ever does.
I am fascinated by talent development because there’s so much involved in it. Some of it has to be hardwired into a person. The military was really good at finding people on short notice and deploying them where they were needed. I’ve believed for some time now that historians have overlooked one of our greatest WWII achievements: education. And a big part of education is identifying aptitude. One has to be impressed by what the U.S. military accomplished in finding the talented people we needed when we needed them. It’s a great story in and of itself.
I am a believer in epigentics, along with that. Certain cultures and families create a better gene pool and vice versa.
I do not have a good gene pool for the record. LOL
His father was a powerful senator but he was also very patriotic.
He was young but his age wasn’t unusual. Many men were made pilots without being college graduates. A friend of my father flew Corsairs over Japan when he was quite young. I remember him telling me how he strafed a Jap train and a piece of the locomotive flew up and damaged his wing. He felt so supremely confident in himself that it took some will power to resist climbing out on the wing to fix it. It was a funny story.
Neil Armstrong also flew for the navy in Korea prior to going to college. I have a magazine clipping somewhere of another friend of my father who crashed his plane on an aircraft carrier while he was a midshipman just after Korea.
I’m thinking of that devastatingly handsome crew mate of his…
I have no problem embracing the healing power of “and.” Influential families can have talented kids.
This is not the time for such an observation. It can wait until after the funeral.
President Trump to his great credit declared that Wednesday, December 5th would be a national day of mourning for HW.
Sheesh, maybe one is on the wrong forum if one thinks one can tell us what we should be talking about and when.
I think young George joined the Navy, against parental wishes. Being 18, he needed no permission.
See my post on the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush.
very enlightening fare from the Smithsonian Channel last weekend.
43 flew a pretty hot airplane himself.